Why Your Fisher-Price Fridge Magnets Could Influence The Way You See Letters

If the letter 'G' is always red in your mind, you should take this test.

We all played with them, and none of us thought anything of it until now. But your Fisher-Price fridge magnets might be the reason you visualize letters always having a particular color. According to Ars Technica, a technology website, if you have synesthesia–a condition in which two senses overlap without any effort on the person's part–your letter-color associations (known as grapheme-color synesthesia) could be due to that specific Fisher-Price set.

A study published in PLOS ONE found that about 6% of people with synesthesia linked letters with colors as they appeared in the magnet set from 1971 to 1990. The percentage grew larger when those born between 1975 and 1980 that played with the set were evaluated, with as many as 15% of synesthetes having associations similar to the toy.

The authors of the study added that the magnets don't necessarily cause synesthesia, but those predisposed to the condition could be greatly conditioned to see certain letters as certain colors from environmental factors such as toys, classroom posters and television ads.

"The proportion of magnet synesthetes rises and falls with the availability of the set," the authors wrote. When the toy is popular, kids are more likely to align with its letter-color associations. But those that don't match the toy's colors often fell in line with the general population, who usually see "G" as green, "R" as red and other letters as a color that starts with that letter.

While the condition used to be difficult to diagnose, there is now an online test that you can take to learn if you have synesthesia. The survey, created by The Synesthesia Battery, evaluates the types of synesthesia that the user believes they have. Each exam is about five minutes long, and based largely on common sounds and tastes.

Even with the research, we just still can't get over the fact that our childhood toys affect the way we perceive things today. Take the test here and find out what colors you see–are you a Fisher Price-influenced synesthete?